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Posted on Thursday Nov 4 1:55:00 UTC 2010 “Here is what Dr. Bernard Jensen has to say in short about bentonite clay in his book “Guide to Diet and Detoxification”: "When used with the elimination diet, these products assist in producing the most thorough elimination possible." He goes on to suggest that they are helpful because they do not further bulk the impactions often found in the bowel.
The notion of eating clay to produce internal healing will no doubt strike many as farfetched if not a little primitive. But natural clay, especially the form known as bentonite, has not only been used medicinally for centuries by indigenous peoples around the world, but has, in recent years, been increasingly prescribed by practitioners of alternative medicine as a simple but effective internal cleanser to assist in reversing numerous health problems.
Clay is a great healer, according to clay expert Ran Knishinsky in The Clay Cure (Healing Arts Press, 1998), who quips “I have been eating dirt every day for the past six years.” Indeed, in over 200 cultures worldwide, every day people eat or drink clay—the medicinal form of “dirt”—as both a nutritional supplement and detoxifying agent, observes Knishinsky.
It is not ordinary “dirt” of course. The name bentonite refers to a clay first identified (or named) in cretaceous rocks in Fort Benton, Wyoming. Although bentonite deposits occur worldwide, many of the largest concentrations are found in the Great Plains area of North America.
Bentonite is not a mineral but a commercial name for montmorillonite, the active mineral in many medicinal clays and which comes from weathered volcanic ash. This name derives from Montmorillon, France, where the medicinal mineral was first identified. Sometimes mineralogists use the term smectite instead to describe the same substance.
A VOLCANIC DETOXIFIER—Bentonite, a medicinal powdered clay which is also known as montmorillonite, derives from deposits of weathered volcanic ash. It is one of the most effective natural intestinal detoxifying agents available and has been recognized as such for centuries by native peoples around the world. Whatever the name, liquid clay contains minerals that, once inside the gastrointestinal tract, are able to absorb toxins and deliver mineral nutrients to an impressive degree, says Knishinsky. Liquid clay is inert which means it passes through the body undigested. Technically, the clay first adsorbs toxins (heavy metals, free radicals, pesticides), attracting them to its extensive surface area where they adhere like flies to sticky paper; then it absorbs the toxins, taking them in the way a sponge mops up a kitchen counter mess.
There is an electrical aspect to bentonite’s ability to bind and absorb toxins. According to Yerba Prima, a company based in Ashland, Oregon, which markets Great Plains® Bentonite, the clay’s minerals are negatively charged while toxins tend to be positively charged; hence the clay’s attraction works like a magnet drawing metal shavings. But it’s even more involved than that.
Once hydrated (combined with water), bentonite has an enormous surface area. According to Yerba Prima, a single quart bottle can represent a total surface area of 960 square yards or 12 American football fields. Bentonite is made of a great number of tiny platelets, with negative electrical charges on their flat surfaces and positive charges on their edges.
When bentonite absorbs water and swells, it is stretched open like a highly porous sponge; the toxins are drawn into these spaces by electrical attraction and bound fast. In fact, according to the Canadian Journal of Microbiology (31 [1985], 50-53), bentonite can absorb pathogenic viruses, aflatoxin (a mold), and pesticides and herbicides including Paraquat and Roundup. The clay is eventually eliminated from the body with the toxins bound to its multiple surfaces.
According to Sonne’s Organic Foods of North Kansas City, Missouri, a company that markets Detoxificant (a liquid montmorillonite), “There is no evidence that bentonite has any chemical action in the body. Its power is purely physical.” Clay’s adsorptive and absorptive qualities may be the key to its multifaceted healing abilities. Knishinsky reports that drinking clay helped him eliminate painful ganglion cysts (tumors attached to joints and tendons, in his case, in his wrist) in two months, without surgery.
According to Knishinsky, benefits reported by people using liquid clay for a period of two to four weeks include: improved intestinal regularity; relief from chronic constipation, diarrhea, indigestion, and ulcers; a surge in physical energy; clearer complexion; brighter, whiter eyes; enhanced alertness; emotional uplift; improved tissue and gum repair; and increased resistance to infections. “Clay works on the entire organism. No part of the body is left untouched by its healing energies,” he notes.
A medical study by Frederic Damrau, M.D., in 1961 (Medical Annals of the District of Columbia) established clearly that bentonite can end bouts of diarrhea. When 35 individuals (average age 51) suffering from diarrhea took two tablespoons of bentonite in distilled water daily, the diarrhea was relieved in 97% (34 of the 35 patients) in 3.8 days, regardless of the original cause of the problem (allergies, virus infection, spastic colitis, or food poisoning). According to Dr. Damrau, bentonite is “safe and highly effective” in treating acute diarrhea.
Knishinsky’s research suggests that the regular intake of liquid clay (typically one to three tablespoons daily, in divided doses) can produce other benefits including parasite removal from the intestines, allergy and hay fever relief, and elimination of anemia and acne. For example, clay helps anemia because it contains both types of dietary iron (ferrous and ferric) in an easily assimilated form; it reduces discomfort from allergies by quickly neutralizing allergens that would otherwise produce allergic reactions; and it reduces heartburn and indigestion by absorbing excess stomach acids...
Bentonite Minerals are derived from an ancient seabed formation in Utah; according to geologists, the clay formed when a layer of volcanic ash fell into what was, long ago, a shallow inland sea. “As the ash filtered through the seawater, it collected pure minerals, forming a layer of highly mineralized clay,” says Payne.
The best way to drink clay is on an empty stomach, or at least an hour before or after a meal or immediately before sleeping at night, says Knishinsky. Typically, clay is available as a thick tasteless, pale-grey gel, but it also comes as a powder or encapsulated.
Generally, it is advisable to start with one tablespoon daily, mixed with a small amount of juice; observe the results for a week, then gradually increase the dosage to no more than four tablespoons daily, in divided doses. Drinking clay can be an annual spring cleaning of your gastrointestinal tract or it can be a symptom-focused, self-care method”.
from: http://www.alternativemedicine.com/digest/issue27/27044R00.shtml Good website about clays: http://www.eytonsearth.org/bentonite Posted on Wednesday Oct 27 9:17:00 UTC 2010 Listed under: The key point to remember about chronic fatigue syndrome/ME is that it is a symptom which may have many causes. The aim is firstly to identify those causes and then put in place the necessary treatment regimes and allow time for those regimes to work. In theory this should work extremely well, but what happens in practice? I regularly audit my practice to see how well patients are doing. The first audit into the efficacy telephone consultations has just been completed by the British Society for Ecological Medicine. These were done for patients who were too ill to come and see me, but who consulted me by telephone. They had sent me a detailed questionnaire with respect to their medical history, I had reviewed any tests they’d had done and perhaps ordered others, we had spoken for one hour by telephone, a treatment plan had been put in place and the GP informed. Initially these patients were followed up at six months. At this point, their response to treatment was rather equivocal with half seeing some modest improvements, but no glaring successes. I suggested to the BSEM audit team that perhaps the improvements were not noticeable because these telephone consultations were with, by definition, very sick patients. Perhaps it was simply a case of time and further follow up should be arranged? So this is what we did and two years down the line these same patients were contacted. Of the 21 questionnaires sent out we received responses from 17. This second batch of figures were very much more encouraging. Fourteen out of the seventeen had seen worthwhile improvements with some back to almost normal activities, albeit with pacing. Three out of the seventeen had remained about the same. None of the patients had been made worse. Essentially these regimes involved:
It is common to see initial worsening as people start the regimes for all the reasons iterated in http://www.drmyhill.co.uk/wiki/Getting_worse_on_the_regime_of_Stone_Age_diet_and_micronutrient_supplements_ when_these_interventions_should_make_you_better! For those patients who did not see improvements, it is possible that this is due to chronic low grade viral infection. There are possible strategies here, so please see http://www.drmyhill.co.uk/wiki/Valacyclovir_in_the_treatment_of_post_viral_fatigue_syndrome#Post_Viral_CFS_ may_be_due_to_low_level_chronic_infection_with_Epstein_Barr_Virus_or__.22Mono.22_and_others And also http://www.drmyhill.co.uk/wiki/Oxymatrine_in_the_treatment_of_post_viral_fatigue I am also researching the possibility of using neem which is a botanical anti-microbial which may have widespread application. The second study which is significant is my ongoing audit of patients who have had repeat mitochondrial function tests. I have to say these tests have been extremely useful in managing CFS – there is no doubt that mitochondria dysfunction is a central player here, as demonstrated by the paper I produced with Dr Norman Booth and Dr John McLaren Howard (Ref:http://www.ijcem.com/files/IJCEM812001.pdf). What this paper showed is that the worse the disability, the worse the mitochondrial function and of course vice versa – indeed this is a very useful way of assessing patients objectively and helpful for application for benefits. Some patients who had first tests, we then went on to do follow up tests and what is so interesting is that these tests improve reliably well. Broadly speaking there can be problems either because of nutritional deficiencies, or because of toxic stresses blocking enzymes in mitochondria and both are amenable to treatment either by giving a regime of nutritional supplements and by doing detoxification regimes to reduce the toxic load. In the early stages of improving mitochondrial function, sometimes this is not necessarily accompanied by clinical improvement. My guess is that the reason for this is that in chronic fatigue syndrome there is a great deal of tissue damage and this is evidenced by the very high cell free DNAs we see in these sufferers. Clinically it looks as if early gains in mitochondrial function go to fuel energy delivery to the immune system to help with the process of healing and repair. Once the healing and repair is effective and the cell free DNA comes down to more normal levels, then the patient gets energy to allow them to have a life! See: www.drmyhill.co.uk/wiki/Pattern_of_recovery. It is never easy recovering from CFS/ME. The regimes are difficult with respect to diet, nutritional supplements, detoxing regimes and lifestyle interventions. However, once put in place and held there, the regimes represent a blueprint for good health for life! Once recovered, all the regimes recommended will help protect one from western diseases associated with western lifestyles such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer and degenerative conditions. The point here is that there is a life beyond CFS/ME and there is no reason why it should not be a good one! |
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